Varadkar: 'Regrettable' Phil Hogan was not given due process before Golfgate resignation

Mr Varadkar and Mr Martin went on a “populist wave of indignation” in the wake of 'Golfgate' and forced his resignation, Mr Hogan will say in a pre-recorded interview set to air tonight.

The former EU Commissioner sits down with Seán O’Rourke, who was also present at the event, as part of a series of RTÉ podcasts linked to the Two Tribes documentary about the history of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael due to air tonight, Wednesday.

Mr Hogan has claimed the resignation of then agriculture minister Dara Calleary after it emerged he was one of more than 80 people at the Oireachtas Golf Society event in Clifden, Co Galway, while the country was under Covid lockdown caused a “domino effect” and led the media to “go after” him as the senior Fine Gael man.

Mr Hogan admits he was “annoyed at the time” and “is still annoyed about what happened”, despite previously admitting he was to blame. He apologised “fully and unreservedly” for attending the dinner on August 19, 2020, saying the blame for his downfall was “entirely my own”.

Speaking to reporters at Government Buildings on Wednesday evening, Mr Varadkar suggested that the blame for Mr Hogan’s resignation in part lies with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. Mr Varadkar said: 

I appreciate that Phil Hogan paid a very high price politically, more so than anyone who attended that particular event.

“It was probably inevitable given the domino effect in the context of the time.”

“But, you know, I think it is regrettable that there wasn’t some sort of process, perhaps at European Commission level, and ultimately it was the European Commission who he was accountable to, not to us or the Dáil.

“I think that everyone should be afforded due process and a fair hearing and I’ll certainly try to make sure that’s the case into the future.” 

When asked if he thinks that Mr Hogan was right to resign as EU Commissioner over Golfgate, Mr Varadkar told the Irish Examiner that he would suggest people go back and read the statement Mr Hogan issued at the time of his resignation.

Mr Hogan resigned in the summer of 2020 after he lost the confidence of his boss, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, for failing to fully account for his movements across Ireland during lockdown, even when she asked him to.

“And he explained at the time why he was resigning and that was a decision that he made and he gave his reasons at the time,” the Taoiseach told the Irish Examiner. 

“It's not for me to interpret them after the fact.

I regret that event ever happened and a lot of people in politics paid a heavy price for all that.  

Tánaiste Micheál Martin, who was the Taoiseach at the time, said there was “no involvement” with the European Commission president in “respect of anything prior to the decision of Phil Hogan to resign”, saying they were “completely at arm’s length”.

Mr Martin said Mr Hogan seemed to indicate in his statement that Mr Martin and Mr Varadkar were “driving their feelings” towards the commission.

He said the context at the time was “very clear” and he recalls the government had placed new restrictions on Kildare and two other counties.